First-time candidate Kirtley wins Democratic nomination

Elizabeth Guida Kirtley was “incredibly surprised” when she won the Democratic Party nomination to run for Congress in the 6th District May 5.

“There were six other candidates. To have won that campaign, it was a sense of surprise, shock, awe, honor, pride all at the same time,” said the Tuscarawas County native.

According to unofficial totals from the Ohio Secretary State’s office, Kirtley received 12,264 votes, or 31.5% of the total.

On election night, she was at a campaign watch party for one of her opponents in the race, Malcolm Ritchie, in Sugarcreek. She expected him to win. She planned on congratulating him and asking him for a job. Instead, she was the winner.

Kirtley, who lives in New Philadelphia with her husband, Rodger, will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, in the November general election.

This is the first time she has run for office.

If elected, Kirtley said she would like to codify Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that protected the right to have an abortion prior to the point of fetal viability. That ruling has since been overturned. She would also like to see ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

And she said she is against almost everything that President Donald Trump has done in office. “We need to clean up the mess he's made and rectify some things.”

Kirtley is a daughter of Jo Ann Guida and the late James Guida. Her mother was a parochial school principal and her father was program director for HARCATUS.

“I was raised with family values, just like almost everyone else. I had a very strict, protective father,” she said.

Kirtley graduated from New Philadelphia High School in 1991 and Kent State University in 1996.

In the years since, she has been a preschool teacher and was vice president of communications for a web-based company in Buffalo, New York.

She worked for Job & Family Services for nine years, which helped shape her political philosophy and sparked her desire to get into politics.

“I think that's where I got a lot of my love for my people. I think a lot of times if a few certain things could be changed, a lot of people would have better lives. I think I got tired of saying, they should change that or they should make laws about that. I got tired of that, and I decided, let's go make laws about that,” Kirtley said.

“Seeing poverty day after day after day does affect you. It gave me the inspiration to really work hard for those who couldn't necessarily work hard for themselves.”

Kirtley currently works as a freelance writer, primarily doing horror and fantasy writing and some poetry.

Now that the primary election is over, she is focusing on meeting all of the Democratic Party chairmen in the 6th District and putting together a campaign team.

“It's amazing to me how many people have reached out, wanting to be on it. So, that makes me very excited, and I think that is increasing my momentum and my team's momentum,” she said.

“I think this is an exciting time. I think a lot of people are understanding the importance of their vote. Whether they're into politics or not, right now politics is politicking them. It surrounds everyone's life. I think people are anxious to get back to when we all were friends. In Tuscarawas County, I think a lot of Republicans and Democrats are eager to work together.

“My motto is, together we rise, so we can change everything. And I think people are realizing that when we do that, we really can change some things, and so that's getting some excitement going so that we can actually make changes that we want to have.”

Asked about her prospects in November, Kirtley said she is going to win.

“There is no other option. The 6th District is going to be Democrat. We're flipping it blue. We're going full speed ahead,” she said.

The 6th Congressional District includes all of Tuscarawas County, as well as all of Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison and Jefferson counties. Portions of Holmes, Mahoning, Stark and Wayne counties are also in the district.